The vocabulary is separated into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs for the purpose of simplicity:

Click on the English word to see information and examples of that word in use (you probably won’t be able to understand the grammar within the sentences at this point, but it is good to see as you progress through your learning).

A PDF file neatly presenting these words and extra information can be found here.

Want to give your brain practice at recognizing these words? Try finding the words in this vocabulary list in a Word Search.

Common Usages:
우리 나라 = “our country” (usually used to refer to Korea by Korean people)

Examples:
어느 나라에서 왔어요? What country did you come from?
미국은 민주적인 나라예요 = The US is a democratic nation한국은 좋은 나라예요? = is Korea a good country?
한국이 곧 좋은 나라가 될 것이다 = Korea will become a good country soon
한국은 다른 나라보다 땅이 작아요 = Korea’s land is small compared to other countries

Common Usages:
안방 = used to refer to the main bedroom of a house (“the master bedroom”)
PC방 = internet café
난방 = the heating of a room
냉방 = the cooling (air conditioning) of a room
놀이방 = daycare
노래방 = “singing room” – Korean style karaoke
방이 좁다 = for a room to be small (“narrow”)
방이 넓다 = for a room to be big (“wide”)
방을 비우다 = to check out of a room

Common Usages:
김치냉장고 = kimchi refrigerator (these actually exist – most Korean families would have [at least] one)
(음식을) 냉장고에 넣다 = to put (food) in the fridge
(음식을) 냉장고에서 꺼내다 = to take something out of the fridge

Example:
저는 야채를 냉장고에 넣었어요 = I put the vegetables in the fridge자석을 냉장고에 그냥 붙여 놓았어요 = I just stuck the magnet onto the fridge저는 당근을 칼로 잘라서 냉장고에 넣었어요 = I cut carrots with a knife and then put them into the fridge

The sound a dog makes in Korean is “멍멍.” This is like saying “woof woof” in English.

Examples:
어렸을 때 강아지를 키우고 싶었어요 = When I was young, I wanted to raise a puppy저는 저의 강아지를 묻었어요 = I buried my dog그 강아지의 주인은 누구예요? = Who is the owner of that dog?
고양이는 강아지와 달라요 = Cats are different than dogs그 강아지의 꼬리는 아주 귀여워요 = That puppy’s tail is very cute
경찰관은 강아지의 주인에게 십만 원의 벌금을 물렸어요 = The police officers gave the owner of the dog a 100 000 won fine강아지는 무서워서 죽는 척했어요 = The dog/puppy pretended to be dead because it was scared

Notes: The sound a cat makes in Korean is “야옹.” This is like saying “meow” in English.

Examples:고양이는 강아지와 달라요 = Cats are different than dogs고양이는 의자 밑에 있어요 = The cat is under the chair
개는 고양이랑 쥐보다 더 커요 = Dogs are bigger than cats and mice
어미를 찾아도 이미 고양이 새끼가 다 죽었어요 = Regardless of if you find the mother, the baby cats (kittens) all died

Notes:
A 전화기 usually refers to a typical land-line style phone that nobody uses anymore, and thus, is not said as often as it used to be said. A more common word to use is “핸드폰” (hand-phone, or cell-phone)

Examples:
좋은 식당에 가고 싶어요 = I want to go to a good restaurant
식당은 은행 옆에 있어요 = The restaurant is beside the bank
우리학교에서 식당까지 10분 걸려요 = It takes 10 minutes to get from our school to the restaurant호텔에 식당이 있어요 = There is a restaurant in the hotel
그 식당이 오래되었다 = That restaurant is old
우리 아버지는 식당에 실망했어요 = Our dad was disappointed in the restaurant저는 식당에서 혼자서 먹었어 = I ate by myself (alone) at the restaurant

Examples:
그 건물은 너무 높아요 = That building is very high
그 건물은 어제와 달라요 = That building is different from yesterday
저 학교는 역사적인 건물이에요 = That school is a historical building한국은 문화적인 건물이 많아요 = Korea has a lot of cultural buildings
건물을 지나가서 오른 쪽으로 가세요 = Go past the building, then go right

Common Usages:
미국 사람 = an American
미국인 = an American
미국 국기 = the American flag
미국 대사관 = American embassy
미국 대학교 = American college
미국 대통령 = American president

Examples:미국 사람이에요? = Are you an American?
저는 다음 주에 미국에 갈 거예요 = I will go to the US next week
우리는 이틀 동안 미국에 있었어요 = We were in America for two days
저는 1년에 두 번 미국에 가요 = I go to America twice per year미국은 대통령을 민주적으로 선출해요 = America elects its president democratically
캐나다와 미국이 문화적인 차이가 있다 = Canada and the US have a cultural difference
저는 미국에서 친구를 만날 거예요 = I will meet a friend in America

Common Usages:
학교를 다니다 = to attend a school
초등학교 = elementary school
중학교 = middle school
고등학교 = high school
대학교 = university

Examples:
저는 학교에서 공부했어요 = I studied at the school저는 학교 안에 있어요 = I am inside the school저는 내일 학교에 갈 것입니다 = I will go to school tomorrow
어제 학교에 몇 번 갔어요? = How many times did you go to school yesterday?
저는 3일 동안 학교에 안 갔어요 = I didn’t go to school for 3 days학교는 학생들한테 교과서를 제공하지 않아요 = The school doesn’t provide textbooks to the students
우리 학교가 세운 지 10주년이에요 = It is the 10th anniversary of our school opening

Examples:
호텔은 은행 옆에 있어요 = The hotel is beside the bank아버지는 은행에 들어갔어요 = My dad went into the bank저의 친구는 은행 안에 있어요 = My friend is in the bank저는 친구를 만나고 나서 은행에 갈 거예요 = I will meet a friend and then go to the bank친구가 오기 전에 저는 은행에 갔어요 = Before my friend came, I went to the bank

Common Usages:
옆집 = the house next to another house
옆방 = the room next to another room
옆구리 = one’s side/flank

Example:
학교는 은행 옆에 있어요 = The school is next to the bank
은행이 학교 바로 옆에 있어요 = The bank is right (immediately) nextto the school
강 옆에 큰 산이 있어요 = There is a big mountain nextto the river
저는 병원을 공원 옆에 지었어요 = I built a hospital beside the park
나는 학교 옆에 서 있어 = I’m standing nextto the school

Notes:
~에 is typically attached to the location where something/somebody is
For more information, visit Lesson 2.

Examples:
저는 은행에 있어요 = I am at the bank
개는 집 안에 있어요 = The dog is in the house
엄마가 어디에 있어요? 병원에 갔어요? = Where is mom? Did she go to the hospital?
서울에 있는 공연을 보러 갈래요? = Shall we go to the show in Seoul?
내가 한국에 있을 때마다 한국어로 말하고 싶어 = Every time I amin Korea, I want to speak Korean

Common Usages:
할 말이 있다 = to have something to say
할 게 없다 = to have nothing to do
할 게 많다 = to have a lot to do

Notes: ~이/가 must be attached to the object that is being possessed.
For more information, visit Lesson 2.

Examples:
저는 펜이 있어요 = I have a pen
저는 많은 돈이 있어요 = I have a lot of money
질문이 있어요? = Do you have a question?
저는 내일 할 일이 있어요 = I have something I need to do tomorrow
한국에서는 모든 집에 밥솥이 있어요 = All houses in Korea have a rice cooker

There are 1050 vocabulary entries in Unit 1. All entries are linked to an audio file. You can download all of these files in one package here.

In Lesson 1 you learned about simple Korean particles. To review, you learned that:

~는 or ~은 are used to indicate the subject (or main person/thing) in a sentence.
~를 or ~을 are used to indicate the object in a sentence.

For example, in this sentence: “I ate a hamburger”

“I” is the subject of the sentence
“Hamburger” is the object
“Eat” is the verb

In this Lesson, you will learn about the particles ~이/가 and specifically how it can compare with ~는/은. In all situations, ~이 is attached to nouns in which the last letter is a consonant (like ~은) and ~가 is attached to nouns in which the last letter is a vowel (like ~는). For example:

책 ends in a consonant (ㄱ), so “~이” is added: “책이.”
소파 ends in a vowel (ㅏ), so “~가” is added: “소파가.”

But, in what situations should we use ~이/가? Before we get to that, I would like to teach you how to use the word “있다” in sentences. Let’s get started.

있다: To have

The word “있다” has many meanings. To a beginner of Korean, we can simplify and generalize these meanings into two forms or usages:

있다 = to have
있다 = to be at a location

Let’s talk about the first usage, “to have.” In English, “to have” is a verb that can act on an object. For example:

I have a pen
I have a car

This usage of 있다 in Korean is an adjective. This is hard for a learner to wrap their head around. At this point, this is important to you for one reason.

You learned in Lesson 1 that sentences with adjectives cannot act on an object. Thus, you cannot have a word with the particle ~을/를 attached to it if the predicating word in a sentence is an adjective (because ~을/를 indicates an object in a sentence).

If this weren’t the case, we could do the following:

I have a pen

I 는 pen을 있다
나는 + 펜을 + 있다
나는 펜을 있다 = I have a pen

However, the sentence above is incorrect. 있다 is an adjective and cannot act on an object like this. Therefore, the use of ~을 on “펜” is incorrect. To get around this, we can attach ~이/가 to the object instead of ~을/를 in sentences with 있다. This is one usage of the particle ~이/가; that is, to indicate the thing that a person “has” in sentences with “있다.” Look at the following example sentences:

Again, note that ~을/를 is not used to indicate the object that a person “has.” Instead, ~이/가 are used.

Remember that the example sentences provided in Lessons 1, 2, 3 and 4 are not conjugated. While one/two forms of conjugations are provided in parentheses below each example sentence, the grammar within these conjugations is too complicated for you to understand right now. For now, focus on what is being presented in these first four lessons before you start to worry about conjugating sentences and using honorifics.

.

있다: To be at a location

있다 can also be used to indicate that something/someone is “at a location.” In Lesson 1 you learned about the particle ~에 in Korean. You learned that this particle is used to indicate the place and/or time of something in a sentence. Therefore, “~에” is often used in sentences with “있다” to indicate the location of something/someone.

For example: I am at school

If we wanted to write this sentence with Korean structure and particles, we would write:

I는 school에 am at
나는 + 학교에 + 있다

This is irrelevant to you now, but when 있다 is used like this, it is again seen as an adjective. This is confusing, but or now, try to ignore it. I begin to discuss this more in Lesson 5 when I discuss the conjugations of 있다.

Notice the very big difference in meaning between the following sentences, and the role that particles have in each case. Because 있다 has two different meanings, changing the particles in a sentence can drastically change the meaning. For example:

나는 학교가 있다 = I have a school – this could make sense, but in most situations, you would probably want to say:
나는 학교에 있다 = I am at school

나는 잡지가 있다 = I have a magazine
나는 잡지에 있다 = I am at the magazine (this doesn’t make sense)

We can also use position words to indicate specifically where someone/something is with respect to another noun. The most common position words are:

안 = inside
위 = on top
밑 = below
옆 = beside
뒤 = behind
앞 = in front

These words are placed after a noun to indicate where an object is with respect to that noun. The particle “~에” is then attached directly to the position words. For example:

학교 앞에 = in front of the school
사람 뒤에 = behind the person
집 옆에 = beside the house
저 건물 뒤에 = behind that building

You have learned that ~이/가 can be attached to nouns in sentences to indicate the object that a person “has.” ~이/가 can also be used to indicate the subject of a sentence, similar to ~는/은. What is the difference? We will talk about this in the next section.

~이/가 as a Subject Marker

One of the most difficult things for a new learner of Korean to understand is the difference between the particles ~는/은 and ~이/가. Earlier in this Lesson, you learned that you should use ~이/가 on the object that a person “has” when using “있다.”

In addition to this, there are more functions of ~이/가 that you should know about.

In Lesson 1, you learned that you should add ~는/은 to the subject of the sentence. To use an example using the grammar taught earlier in this Lesson, you could say:

The two sentences could have exactly the same meaning and feeling. I emphasize “could” because in some situations the meaning of the two sentences is exactly the same, but in other situations the meaning of two sentences can be subtly different.

The reason why they could be identical:
고양이는 집 뒤에 있다 = The cat is behind the house
고양이가 집 뒤에 있다 = The cat is behind the house

~이/가, like ~는/은 is added to the subject of the sentence. In some situations, there is no difference in meaning or feel between adding ~이/가 or ~는/은 to the subject.

The reason why they could be subtly different:
~는/은 has a role of indicating that something is being compared with something else. The noun that “~는/은” is added to is being compared. In this example:

고양이는 집 뒤에 있다 = The cat is behind the house

The speaker is saying that the cat is behind the house (in comparison to something else that is not behind the house). The difficulty here is that there is only one sentence; which gives the listener no context to understand what “the cat” is being compared with. However, if I were to make up a context that fits into this situation, it could be that “The dog is in the house, and, the cat is behind the house.”

However, saying:
고양이가 집 뒤에 있다 = The cat is behind the house
…is simply stating a fact, and “the cat” is not being compared to anything.

Another example:
커피가 냉장고에 있다 = The coffee is in the fridge (This sentence is simply stating that the coffee is in the fridge, and there is no intention of comparison)

커피는 냉장고에 있다 = The coffee is in the fridge (This sentence could simply be stating that the coffee is in the fridge. It is also possible that the speaker is trying to distinguish between the location of another object. For example, perhaps the tea is on the table, but the coffee is in the fridge).

———————————-

You also might be wondering why “안” isn’t used if we are indicating that the coffee is in the fridge. In cases like this, where the location being described happens to be “inside” of something, “안” can be omitted. You can see the similarities of using “안” and not using it in the following English and Korean sentences:

커피가 냉장고에 있다 = The coffee is in the fridge
커피가 냉장고 안에 있다 = The coffee is inside the fridge

———————————-

In both pairs of examples (using ~는/은 or ~이/가), the translation does not change by altering the subject particle. Rather, the only thing that changes is the subtle feeling or nuance that something is being compared.

Note that this “comparative” function of ~는/은 can be used in much more complicated sentences, and can be attached to other grammatical principles – neither of which you have learned yet. In future lessons, not only will you see examples of increasing complexity applying this concept, but its usage with other grammatical principles will be introduced specifically. You need to remember that the example sentences given at this level are incredibly simple and do not really reflect actual sentences that you are likely to hear as one-off sentences from Korean people. Real speech is much more complex and it usually is an intricate combination of many clauses and grammatical principles.

Our lessons don’t really get into the use of multiple clauses until Lesson 24. Creating sentences with more than one clause opens an entire other can of worms that you don’t have the tools to deal with yet. I encourage you to NOT read ahead to that lesson. Rather, I encourage you to keep the information from this lesson in mind as you eventually do reach that level.

As you progress through our Lessons, you will see both “~는/은” and “~이/가” used as the subject particles in the thousands of example sentences we have provided. As almost all of our example sentences are just written as one sentence (without any background, prior context, or explanation of the situation), there is no way to tell if something is being compared to – and thus – their usage is usually arbitrary. That being said – every Korean example sentence throughout all of our lessons is always checked by a native Korean speaker to make sure that nothing is awkward (or incorrect).

In addition to the distinction discussed in this lesson, there are other situations where it might be more appropriate to use ~이/가 or ~은/는. However, I am not able to fully describe the distinction between these two particles with the limited amount of grammar (and vocabulary) understanding you have to this point. The purpose of this lesson is to give you a general understanding of ~이/가, and to introduce you to the comparison between ~는/은.

At this point, I would like you to continue to Lesson 3 to continue learning other grammatical principles you need to deepen your understanding of Korean in general.

In Lessons 17 and 22, we will come back to this problem and dive into more ways we can distinguish the functions of ~이/가 and ~는/은. I want to stress that I do not want you to read these now, but you should know that there is more to distinguishing ~는/은 and ~이/가 than is described here.

If you haven’t reached Lesson 17 (and especially if you haven’t even moved on to Lesson 3) you won’t understand what is being described in that lesson. Being able to fully understand the difference between ~이/가 and ~는/은 is important, but not as important (at the moment) as understanding other aspects of Korean grammar. I can’t stress this enough – your understanding of the difference between the two will progress with your Korean development in general.

The good thing is, even if you make a mistake with the usages of ~이/가 and ~는/은 (either because you are confused or because you haven’t reached the later lessons yet), 99.9% of the time, the listener will be able to understand exactly what you are trying to express. Likewise, if you listen to somebody speaking, you will be able to understand what they are trying to say regardless of if you have learned the more complex usages of ~이/가 and ~는/은. The difference between these two particles is about nuance and does not dramatically change the meaning of sentence.

Making a mistake between other particles, however, would cause other people to misunderstand you. For example, using ~를/을 instead of ~는/은 would (most likely) make your sentence incomprehensible.

That’s it for this lesson. Please keep all of this information in your mind for future lesson. We will continue this discussion in Lesson 17.